heartofdakota.com

Hello all,
I have decided after pouring over the placement chart repeatedly and weighing all the options over and over again (still not totally sure I am making the right decision) to let my daughter (who will be in 9th) skip RevtoRev and MtMM. She did Preparing in 6th (our first year with Hod), CtC in 7th, and Res to Ref in 8th (this year). Preparing was a wonderful year for her. It was a great introduction to Heart of Dakota and the Charlotte Mason method. Her learning and independence increased exponentially that year as compared to previous years. However, I probably should have checked the placement chart again after that year instead of just moving on with CTC. The next year she found several of the books to be below her level of maturity, as should be expected since it was for much younger children. This year, she has enjoyed most of Res to Ref, but I feel it has been way too easy for her. She is done before noon everyday. I have been ok with that though, because she is still learning a lot.

For high school, though, I do not want to try to beef up the two remaining middle school guides to make them credit worthy (mostly because I don't really know what constitutes credit worthiness.) I had thought about having her do both the remaining guides next year, but feel like that will be too much, and she will still be behind one year and not be able to do all the high school guides. I feel like she could handle the workload of the WG guide, and she says, "I will do whatever you tell me to do." So I am planning on letting her skip to get to WG, but I want to know if there are any books in the guides she will be skipping that are "can't miss" books. We love HOD's choices, and are not wanting to miss anything. I thought that if there were some that stood out to some of you who have gone through those guides, I could get those for her to read over the summer or just for fun when she wants to read them. So give me your suggestions, please!

TIA and Blessings!
Allison
Mom to Rachel (RtR), Luke (Preparing), Sarah (LHFHG), and Anna (2yrs old)

I struggled over this decision with my son too. We decided to skip and go from RTR to MtMMs. After much deliberating and praying, I realized that I was going to either skip at a guide either in middle school or high school. The final decision was after making sure he fit in the placement guide. He will be 14 in October and he’s definitely ready.
Couple of things I am looking forward to MtMMs is business for kids, and Evolution, the Grand Experiment. ( I have been waiting for that one for YEARS) My advice would be to let the placement guide help you and if there is any books you want to do, you could add it over a summer.










Isabella ( RTR) previously CtC, Preparing, Bigger, Beyond and Little hearts
Michael ( RTR) previously CtC, Preparing, Bigger & Beyond.

I am assuming you aren't concerned about fitting any of the actual history in, thinking she will get that in the high school guides, so I will just mention some non-history favorites. We are only on week 23 of Rev to Rev but so far I recommend reading Amos Fortune and Seaman. Also try and find something that will take her through the states. There are lots of resources out there that have all 50 states in a book that she can just look at for fun like The Star Spangled State Book by Knowledge Quest. We also shortened the Composer/Music study and used the book called The Story of the Orchestra which she could read through on her own as well. And finally I would say the Who Is God? book has been great for a worldview study. She can read that on her own but Carrie recommends doing it with the child as it leads to great discussions.

We loved pretty much every book in both of those guides. MTMM is probably his all time favorite guide or at least tied with Preparing. I think you could pick any of the books for her to read, but honestly what I would try and work more on is some of the skills. I know you have already made your decision, but I can't imagine skipping 2 guides like that. The change in the amount of work is huge as well as just the entire feel of the guides. It is much more down to business, as it should be since it is high school. My ds could also often get done with RTR quickly, usually 4 hours, but 3 years later and lots more maturity and he works usually 7:30- 2:30 or 3 on the WG guide. He works pretty much non-stop with just a 45 minute -1hr lunch. If you are going to do that jump then really focus on her being able to write long written narrations, from challenging books as well as just being able to read lots of pages in a day.

Allison,

I'm so glad you posted your thoughts here, so we get a chance to help you brainstorm options. I will begin by sharing that I would not encourage a child to skip forward two guides within the HOD sequence even if the child were underplaced previously, as the jump will be absolutely huge. While it is definitely possible to skip over a guide with a child who was combined with a younger sibling in a guide that was low for him/her skill-wise, jumping over two guides and landing in the first high school guide will be an almost impossible move to do successfully. The student will jump over so many skills that are needed and also will almost double his/her school day when compared to RTR. My own third son is doing RTR right now and will be finishing it in May, and it boggles my mind to think of him going from what he is doing now in RTR straight into the World Geography Guide. So, it is fresh in my mind right now the kind of jump that you are pondering.

I would encourage you to move your daughter to MTMM for her freshman year, followed by WG, WH, and the new American History Guide to finish out high school. The sequence will work well and give her the added challenge she needs, without dumping her into a long day for which she has not been prepared skill-wise. I also would not be too quick to have her read the books she is passing in Rev2Rev, just in case she needs to back track if MTMM is too much. I think she will thrive in MTMM, but it is good to leave yourself some options.

I know this is not what you are thinking right now, and of course as the parent you can do as you wish, but I wanted to chime in with some thoughts before you begin having your daughter read resources from Rev2Rev and MTMM and encourage you to wait on that path for awhile. Sometimes it helps to get other perspectives on what you're considering, and I would love for you to really consider MTMM for your daughter's upcoming year as I think it would be a good fit. Feel free to share your thoughts.

Blessings,
Carrie

This has got to be a hard choice! I just wanted to link a few other forums for people who have been in similar situations as you. Some people are glad they jumped (one level, not two). Some regret it. I hope these links help you sort out your thoughts:

Skipped MTMM and was sorry that they did it:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=15156&p=106778&hili ... mm#p106778

This is thread on whether or not to skip or not skip a level:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=13690&p=97830#p97830

And finally, here is a thread on someone who was glad they did skip RevtoRev and moved to MTMM. I think they used MTMM for high school though.
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=13690&p=97830#p97830

Also - the only other thing to think about (and am not sure if you mentioned it here), is I was wondering if your child currently is completing the extension pack? I know you mentioned that your child is finished by noon. But if she is completing the extensions packs, reading the storytime box, and completing all of her other reading along with other school items by noon, that is fast! Also, does your daughter complete a unit in 4 days per week by noon or does she do a unit in 5 days? If you spread the work out over 5 days, then that would be a major reason she can complete it by noon as well. Last question, what time does she start her schoolwork? My oldest is obviously much younger than your dd but she typical does 2-2.5 before lunch and the same after lunch. That is just her style. So my question for you is, how long does she spend on school per day? So, if she is completing all of these things in 3-4 hours a day and getting her work done in 4 days per week, then I definitely agree with you that she is under-placed in the guide.

I know you are against modifying but if you did decide to do MTMM for 9th grade, and you skip RevtoRev, you could easily substituting the science in RevtoRev with the science in MTMM. (I have heard a lot of people who love both sciences. It is a tough choice.) But I was thinking that this option might be the easies modification. The nice thing with MTMM is that grammar, writing, spelling, and math are easy - you just keep moving forward. The writing book in MTMM is listed as 5th - 12th grade, so no adjustment necessary. The grammar you would just keep moving forward with. The science, if you chose to substitute with RevtoRev, you would just get the advanced kit instead of the intermediate. I only mention using the science from RevtoRev instead of MTMM because beefing up the science in MTMM will be very similar to the science in AH guide. If you used the RevtoRev science, then you would need the guide to complete it but it would be the least amount of modification. You would do the advanced kit with the inventors study only. Then with history, you would have her complete the storytime box alone, the history reading and the extensions alone. There are extra activities with the extensions. You would still use DITHOR and just pick high school level books. That would be easy to modify and not really much modification anyway. The only thing you might consider adding is Spanish and economics. Or you could just as easily not add in Spanish too. You would need the WG guide to see the Spanish progression and then you could just divvy out the econ book over the year. It may sound like a lot of modification but it won't be too bad. This year with my young (obviously a much different situation) I bumped her down from Beyond Little Hearts to Little Hearts. She wasn't in the age range for Bigger so I didn't move her up. Last year was our first year with HOD and I didn't quite understand placement and how much the guides jump in level every year. For her, I have been having her copy the poems out of the Beyond guide and she completes spelling, grammar and cursive with her brother from the Bigger guide. She also completes math from the Bigger guide at her pace. So she is working out of 3 guides It hasn't been a big deal at all I just wanted to encourage you here as you ponder what you want to do next year.

I will pray for you for wisdom. I would hate for you to bump your child up so much that she hates school and hates the workload. But clearly you can see that this year is much easier than it needed to be. Because I know modifying may seem overwhelming and daunting, the good news is that with MTMM, this would really be the only year you would need to do much modifying. After this year is over, you would just do WG as is and possibly modify Spanish. I do think it is wise to consider how to proceed for next year. I will pray God give you wisdom and peace as you make your choice.